Chapter 156 Zoo?
Gathering ten Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals was easier said than done.
Dilan had not expected Williams’ report about the mass of monsters to be so incorrect.
“There are so many powerful monsters and only some mutated animals…Gates?”
He presumed that there should be a few Gates in the mountain’s range, otherwise the high number of Tier-1 monsters wouldn’t make much sense.
Less than a minute after he had left the hospital, Dilan encountered a group of Bisons. But they hadn’t been ordinary Bison as their legs were at least twice as broad and sturdy as that of ordinary bison, allowing them to live in the mountains.
Their horns were gray in color while their hair had a reddish-brown tone. Dilan could tell that they had emerged from a Gate and that they didn’t originate from Milarn.
However, that hadn’t been important in his fight against them. They were extremely fast, powerful, and endurable.
The Gray Slayer was barely able to cut through their hide. This fact made Dilan realize once again that a powerful and razor-sharp weapon was extremely important to fight them.
Yet, even more important was the proper utilization of his abilities, which was exactly what Dilan had done.
Excited to fight powerful opponents right off the bat, he quickly activated the [Thunder Step] ability.-.
It created a thunderous noise but that was not further problematic as the surrounding was already filled with the sounds of fighting monsters that growled and shrieked.
The sound of thunder would get drowned in the melee and wouldn’t attract the attention of monsters because of this.
Dilan’s Agility surpassed the Mountain Bisons’ Agility after [Thunder Step] had been activated. However, he still hadn’t thought about utilizing his high speed to evade facing the Mountain Bisons’ head-on.
It was the complete opposite that happened as he chose to face his opponents directly. He shot toward them, enraging the already frustrated Mountain Bisons that were less than six in number.
They had been separated from their group due to the incident that had occurred within the mountain.
The Mountain Bisons should be searching for their herd but instead of doing so they chose to release their pent-up frustration at Dilan, the being, who seemed to be powerful enough to provide them some Essence to become stronger after they killed him!
What Dilan didn’t know was that his scent and aura were a clear indicator that he was not only powerful but that his Essence crystal was special.
Even if Dilan were to know this, he wouldn’t be able to change anything about it. However, at least, he would have been able to understand why he was bound to face numerous monsters in the future.
After all, he was a treasure trove for their advancement!
But during the fight against the Mountain Bisons, Dilan had not noticed anything like that. It had been slightly weird for him to be attacked by a herd right off the bat but he was also hopeful that the Bisons might be Silver Tier-1 monsters.
Using [Aegis’ Shield] to block and forcefully avert the Mountain Bisons’ path, Dilan shot past the shield before stabbing the Gray Slayer in the abdomen of the closest Mountain Bison.
Dilan had to use his whole strength to cut through the Bison’s hide but the result was satisfying.
With a little bit of mana circulating through the Gray Slayer, its sharpness was artificially increased.
This allowed Dilan to kill the first Bison without too much of an issue.
Following the death of the first Bison, Dilan focused on using the memories and experiences that had been imprinted in his mind.
Fighting with the said memories and experience, which he had received from the [True Weapon Specialist] ability, Dilan’s actions were decisive, ruthless, and barely without wasted movements.
He was a purple flash that shot over the ground and inflicted numerous injuries to the Mountain Bisons around him. Making use of the Mountain Bisons’ low flexibility and long turning circle, Dilan was not even required to activate [Mana Slash] or his gloves’ ability [Momentary Strengthening] to end the remaining Mountain Bisons.
The 30-second duration of [Aegis’ Shield] was barely used up when the battle finished, and Dilan still felt fully energized.
His eyes gleamed brightly, and blood trickled down the saber in his hand. He breathed out air that turned into the white fog the moment it left his mouth.
It was cold outside but Dilan didn’t notice any of that.
His heart was beating wildly and he was excited to fight some powerful monsters once again. One could even say that he had missed fighting with his life on the line, the sight of blood, and the sensation of knowing that he was able to decide over the life and death of other existences.
Somehow, it was almost as if his sanity went for a toss whenever his excitement overwhelmed him.
Fortunately, he was able to get a hang of himself as his rational mind suppressed his desires.
‘If only I had a storage device…’
Dilan was a little bit sad to leave the Mountain Bisons’ corpses behind because their average weight was at least 700 kilograms.
It was a shame to leave so much precious food and meat by not taking it with him but Dilan also knew that he could carry all of them back without leaving traces behind which led to the hospital.
This was a little bit frustrating but not something he could change right now.
The current situation had already gotten out of hand, after all. He shouldn’t try things that could worsen the survivor’s condition.
That was also why Dilan had merely collected the Bisons’ horns and their Essence crystals before he decided to keep going further.
‘Only Bronze?’
Dilan had hoped for the Bison’s Essence crystal to be Silver but luck hadn’t been on his side as they were merely Bronze Essence crystals.
Thus, Dilan had absorbed three Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals of the Mountain Bisons to gain some stats and the necessary essence to fill his Essence pool once again.
[Three Essences of Tier-1 Level 8 Kirkan Bisons have been absorbed→ +0.6 Strength, +0.2 Health]
[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached Level 3(Tier-1)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]
When he finished absorbing the Essence crystals Dilan merely smiled dryly.
‘The level up provides more status points than absorbing three Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals…’
The Blessed Curse [Will of the Primordial] clearly showed how powerful it was. Unfortunately, it was not in Dilan’s favor but that was something he could live with.
While he stored the other Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals in his backpack, Dilan walked past the corpses to enter the city’s outskirts.
The Rian mountainside hospital’s location could be considered to be slightly outside the city, despite some believing that it was the same area.
In the end, this didn’t really matter because Dilan had to walk down a small street before he reached one of the city’s main streets.
Contrary to the deserted street that he had expected, it was bustling, not with living humans but with all kinds of monsters.
Many were fighting, while others attempted to avoid fights by all means. The weak fled at the sight of powerful predators, who attempted to fight the equally strong herbivores.
Dilan didn’t reveal himself either. Instead, he was trying to hide in order to find sole monsters, who gave a wide berth to the fights of other monsters.
They were the most likely to be Silver Tier-1 monsters, which was what Dilan was searching for.
Unfortunately, finding prey to hunt was far more difficult than expected.
“Did Rian turn into a Zoo or what?!? Where the hell is so many different types of monsters coming from?? Are those monsters really from a few Gates, there are so many different monsters…just how is this possible?”